UBS axed 2,000 U.S. jobs in latest round of cuts

ZURICH, April 30 (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS UBSN.VX(UBS.N) said on Thursday it had axed 2,000 U.S. jobs as part of its latest mammoth round of job cuts announced earlier in April.

“I can confirm the 2,000 job cuts,” said UBS spokesman Andreas Kern. The world’s biggest wealth manager employs nearly 30,000 people in the United States.

UBS had informed 600 U.S. financial advisors they would have to leave and said it was also cutting 1,400 back office staff, all in wealth management, said a report in Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger quoting a different UBS spokesman.

Recently appointed Chief Executive Officer Oswald Gruebel announced on April 15 that UBS would cut 8,700 jobs as part of a new, radical restructuring plan that was aimed at bringing the troubled Swiss bank back to profit.

He said on that occasion that UBS would post a first-quarter net loss of 2 billion Swiss francs ($1.76 billion) when it reported results on May 5.

UBS said at the time of the job-cut announcement that it would shed 2,500 positions in its homeland, Switzerland.

It gave no other details but an internal memo obtained by Reuters said the bank was planning to axe about 4,000 jobs at its prized wealth management division.

UBS’ investment bank, whose hefty investments into risky U.S. assets has forced it to make more than $50 billion in writedowns, has been hit hard in previous rounds of job cuts. ($1=1.137 Swiss Franc) (Reporting by Lisa Jucca; editing by Karen Foster)